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H(1N. DANIKI, MrCClY 



1675 1781 



OLD FORT ST. JOSEPH 



OR 



MICHIGAN UNDER FOUR FLAGS 



BY 

DANIEL McCOY 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE MICHIGAN PIONEER AND HIS- 
TORICAL SOCIETY AT ITS THIRTY-SECOND AN- 
NUAL MEETING, JUNE 7, 1906. 



LANSING, MICHIGAN 
WYNKOOP HALLENBECK CRAWFORD CO.. STATE PRINTERS 

1907 



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Reprinted from Vol. 35, Pioneer and Historical Collections. 

OLD FORT ST. JOSEPH. 

BY DANIEL McCOY. 

Fort St. Joseph, over which floated the flag of Spain in 17S1, was 
located in the third ward of the present city of Niles, Michigan. It 
covered about two acres of ground which is now under cultivation, no 
trace of its outline remaining. 

I visited the site in the fall of 1905 and, through the kindness of Mr. 
Lewis H. Beeson of Niles, whose family has long been of that region 
and owned the land adjacent to the site, saw innumerable evidences of 
its authenticity. Mr. Beeson has been a lifelong student of the valley 
of the St. Joseph and a constant collector of relics of the ancient 
fort, comprising articles of an imperishable nature, such as flintlocks 
and flints, buttons of the French soldiers, indestructible portions of 
ofiicers' epaulettes, nails made by hand, Scaribs, and tokens given by 
the priests to the Indians; all sorts of Indian relics including a splendid 
collection of beads from the smallest to the very largest used for neck- 
laces, etc., all in good state of preservation, but showing great age in 
their incrustations. He has been collecting since boyhood, and states 
that no relics ever were discovered outside of a certain area of about 
two acres, marking the limit of the enclosure. 

The topograi)hy of the country in the vicinity is about the same as 
when the mission was begun and when La Salle and Hennepin and 
Tonty and Marquette passed up and down the river on their way to 
and from Kankakee portage to the waters of the Mississippi. On a 
bluff to the east of the fort and overlooking it, when the first settlers 
came into this valley about 1825, stood a large wooden cross, which 
has been replaced by a new one as often as it fell from age or decay. 
At present it is down, leaning upon one arm, but I learn that arrange- 
ments are being made to erect a new one in its place, either of wood 
or of some more enduring material. No accurate knowledge a])j»ears 
to exist as to why a large cross is raised at this spot, but legend had 
it that it marks the final resting place of one of the early Jesuit fathers, 



so many of whom sacrificed their lives in their efforts to carry the 
blessings and comforts of their religion to the Indians. 

Writers who have touched upon this fort have not agreed as to its 
location, — Parkman locating it at the mouth of the river, and Hins- 
dale, in his ''Old Northwest," page 172, falling into the same error and 
confusing it with the fort built by La Salle in 1679. This fort was 
named by him Fort Miami, and was destroyed by deserters from Fort 
Crevecoeur, the year following — was rebuilt by La Forrest, one of La 
Salle's lieutenants, and maintained a few years only. Father Henne- 
pin says it was a simple breastwork made of hewn logs enclosing an 
area of forty by eightj^ feet, which was surrounded by palisades, as 
additional protection. There is no record of any fort at the mouth of 
the river except this built by La Salle and, after his final departure 
from this region the site was never used as a military or trading post. 

The first white man known to have visited the vicinity of Fort St. 
Joseph was Father Claude Jean Allouez, who came in 1G75 having an 
eye to the spiritual welfare of the Pottawatamies and Miamis of this 
section of the counry. The St. Joseph valley was then, as now, a most 
attractive place. Game was abundant and fish plenty, making it the 
Indian's paradise, into which soon came the French furtraders and 
bush lopers. A mission was first established bj' Father Aveueau of the 
Society of Jesus in 1690, and February 15, 1694, Governor Denonville 
granted this society a concession of twenty arpents (twenty -eight 
arpents equal one mile) along the St. Joseph river by twenty arpents 
deep, at such place as they might select upon which to locate their 
chapel and other buildings, which were erected. This soon grew to 
be a post of sufficient importance to require the protection of a garri- 
son. Sieur de Courtemauche with a detachment of Canadian soldiers 
was sent to this mission in 1695 to protect it from the Iroquois, but it 
was not until 1697 that a military post was established there from 
which date it becomes known in history as Fort St. Joseph. 

We know but little of its history for a number of years subsequent 
to this. Father Marest informs us that the mission was in a thriving 
state as early as 1712, and Charlevoix writes from there in 1721 to 
Madame la Duchesse de I>esdiguieres as follows : 

"River St. Joseph, August 16, 1721. 
"Madam : 

"It was eight days since I arrived at this post, where we have a 
mission, and where there is a commandant with a small garrison. The 
commandant's house, which is but a sorry one, is called the fort from 



its being surrounded with an indifferent palisado which is pretty near 
the case witli all the rest, except the forts Chambly and Catarocouy, 
which are real fortresses. There are, however, in almost every one of 
them, some few cannons or pateraroes, which in case of necessity are 
sulhcient to hinder a surprise and to keep the Indians in respect. We 
have here two villages of Indians, one of the Miamis and the other of 
the Pott.awatamies, both of them mostly Christians, but they have been 
for a long time without any pastor. The missionary who has been 
lately sent to them will have no small difficulty in bringing them back 
to the exercise of their religion. 

"The River St. Joseph comes from the south and discharges itself 
into Lake Michigan, (the eastern shore of which is a hundred leagues 
in length) and which you are obliged to sail along before you come 
to the eYitry of the river. You afterwards sail up twenty leagues in 
it before you reach the fort." 

Charlevoix in the above early letter comes very near to the correct 
distance of the Fort St. Joseph from the mouth of the river, which is 
a little less than sixty miles. 

Sr de Muy, an ensign in the French army commanded at St. Joseph's 
River in 1736. He was afterwards commandant at Detroit.^ 

The ensign Belestre commanded at River St. Joseph in 1746. In 
1761, when the country came into the hands of the English through 
the fall of Quebec and the capitulation of Montreal, a detachment of 
the sixtieth British regiment, then called the Royal Americans, re- 
lieved the French troops and hoisted the British flag at Fort St. Joseph. 
* * * Pontiac, the great chief of the Ottawas, dissatisfied with the 
change from French to English rule, incited the Algonquin tribes of 
the northwest to resistance and sought by surprise to capture and de- 
stroy on the same day the various forts in the region of the Great 
Lakes, now occupied by the English. Detroit alone, under the control 
of Major Gladwin, successfully made resistance. Sandusky, Michili- 
mackinac, Onatonan on the Wabash, Fort Miami on the Maumee, 
Presque Isle and St. Joseph all were taken, and but few defenders lived 
to describe the horrors through which they passed. It will be noticed 
that where Frenchmen were found in any of these posts they were un- 
molested, the Indians having no grievance against the French. Seven- 
teen Pottawatamies came into Ensign Schlosser's quarters at Fort St. 
Joseph on ^L-Q* 25, 1763, on pretense of holding a council. A French- 
man having knowledge of the treacherous nature of their errand, en- 
deavored to give the alarm, when at once Schlosser was seized, ten of 
the garrison killed, and three, together with the commandant, taken 



" See Cadillac papers, Vol. 34, p. 334. 



6 

prisoners and brought to Detroit, where they were exchanged for 
Indian prisoners in the possession of Major Gladwin. 
Richard Winston, a trader at Fort St. Joseph, writes of this event: 

"June 19, 1763. 
"I have oulv to inform you that by the blessing of God and the help 
of M. Louison Chevalier I escaped being killed when the unfortunate 
garrison was massacred. Mr. Hambough and me being hid in the house 
of same Chevalier for four days and nights." 

We read in "Historic Illinois," page 155, that in October, 1777, this 
insignificant stockade on the St. Joseph river was surprised and cap- 
tured h\ sixteen Illinois patriots under Tom Brady, a Kaskaskia Irish- 
man, and a Canadian half-breed named Hamelin, then residing at 
Cahokia. They surprised at night the garrison of twenty-one British 
regulars whom they paroled, seized the merchandise and destroyed 
what they could not carry away, and, upon leaving, set fire to the 
buildings and stockade. Rendered careless from the easy success of 
their lawless venture they were overtaken on the Calumet river, not 
far from the present South Chicago, by the same regulars they had 
paroled, together with a number of Indians, and several were killed, 
the remainder taken prisoners. 

We also read that in the summer of 1778 Paulette Meillet, then re- 
siding near Peoria, led a force of three hundred French, Indians and 
half-breeds along the water courses of the Illinois and Kankakee to 
Fort St. Joseph. An assault was made which was successful, and once 
more the flag of England came down at a run. The garrison was 
paroled, and the fort once more looted and set on fire. 

Notwithstanding these vicissitudes the post of St. Joseph was main- 
tained and, in 1780, contained eight houses and seven shanties, the 
population consisting of forty-five French and four Pawnee slaves, 
according to information furnished by the Haldimand papers. The 
last and most memorable attack was made by the Spaniards in 1781, 
at the close of the revolutionary war. Spain then occupied the terri- 
tory west of the Mississippi river and had a fort of some consequence; 
at St. Louis, Galvez, the governor of Louisiana had captured the 
British posts on the gulf of the Mississippi river; Pensacola, Mobile, 
Natchez and Baton Rouge, and the extension of Spanish claims north 
to the Groat Lakes seemed possible. That a knowledge of Spain's 
desires in this direction were known to the English is evident from the 
fact that in 17G6 Major Robert Rogers, a native of New Hampshire, 



who commanded a body of provincial rangers and wlio had been 
assigned the task of taking over the French outposts which had become 
English by the terms of the Montreal capitulation of 17G0, was tried 
by a court-martial for having meditated an act of treason in the sur- 
render of Fort Michilimackinac into the hands of the Spaniards. With 
this desire for the extension of their territory northward to the lakes 
still strong, and to give stability to such claims as they might make 
to the region, an expedition left St. Louis, January 2, 1781, consisting 
of sixty-five militiamen and sixty Indians under the command of Cap- 
tain Don Eugenio Puree, accompanied by Don Carlos Tayon, a sub- 
lieutenant of militia, by Don Luis Chevalier, a man versed in the 
Indian language, and by the great chiefs Electurno and Nagingan. 
They traversed the State of Illinois and leaving the present boundaries 
near Danville, advanced northerly through the swamp-country directly 
towards the old Kankakee portage to the Eiver St. Joseph, about the 
present location of South Bend, Indiana. With presents they bought 
a safe passage through the Indian tribes, allies of the English, and 
suddenly appeared before the fort, having traveled some two hundred 
and twenty leagues in the dead of winter, across a trackless country, 
each man on foot and carrying his provisions and equipments. But 
few soldiers comprised the garrison at this time and an easy conquest 
was made, the English soldiers and traders being made prisoners of 
war, and the flag of his most Catholic majesty, the King of Spain, tak- 
ing the place of the English standard. They remained but a short 
time when, having divided the provisions and stores among their own 
Indians and those living near, they destroyed the post, and returned 
to St. Louis carrying the British flag with them. After this the fort 
was never rebuilt. 

It is strange that no history of Micliigan, uj) to this time, relates 
this x>ossession of Michigan territory by the Spaniards, but its truth 
is unquestionable. Manj' writers on tlie subject of the northwest terri- 
tory mention the event. It may be found in ^'Hinsdale's Old Northwest," 
in Charles Moore's "Northwest Under Three Flags," in William H. 
English's "Conquest of the Northwest," in Mason's ''Chapters from 
Illinois History," in "Parrish's Historic Illinois," in "Windsor's Nar- 
rative and Critical History of the United States," Vol. YI.. ]). 74^. and 
^'Wharton's Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United 
States," Vol. A'., p. 3G3. John Jay, writing from Madrid, April 28, 1782, 
to Kobert R. Livingston, secretary for foreign affairs at Philadelphia, 
savs : 



8 

"The Madrid Gazette of 12th of March contained a paragraph of 
which you ought not to be ignorant. I shall therefore copy it verbatim 
and add a translation as literal as I can make it." 

Here follows: 

"By a letter from the commandant general of the army operations 
at Havana and Governor of Louisiana, His Majesty has advices that 
a detachment of sixty-five militia men and sixty Indians of the nations 
of Otagnos, Sotu, and Putnami under the command of Don Eugenio 
Puree * * * ^yho marched the 2nd of January, 1781, from the 
town of St. Louis of the Illinois, had possessed themselves of the post 
of St. Joseph which the English occupied at two hundred and twenty 
leagues distance from that of the above mentioned St. Louis." » * * 

]^enjamin Franklin, writing from Passy, France, April 12, 1782, to 
Robert R. Livingston, secretary for foreign affairs, says: 

"I see by the newspapers that the Spaniards having taken a little 
post called St. Joseph, pretend to have made a conquest of the Illinois 
country. In what light does this proceeding appear to Congress." 
* * * 

In the Canadian Archives, series B., Vol. 101, p. 1, a letter from 
DePeyster, commander at Detroit, dated January 8, 1781, to Brigadier- 
General Powell shows a knowledge of the contemiilated expedition, an 
extract from it is as follows: 

"The rebels having long since quit all that country, Brady, who 
says he had no longer a desire of remaining in the Rebel Service there- 
fore did not follow them, informed me that Colonel Clarke was gone 
down to Williamsburgh to solicit a detachment to join with a S])anish 
colonel in an expedition against the place. When the heavy cannon 
and ammunition arrives, I shall be ready to give them a warm recep- 
tion should they be rash enough to attempt it, our works are however 
yet in a shattered state." 

In the Canadian Archives, same volume page 62, Patt Sinclair, 

lieutenant governor, writing from Michilimackinac Island, May 1, 1781, 

to Brigadier General Powell, mentions the fall of fort St. Joseph as 

follows : 

"The disasters at St. Josephs, and what threaten any traders per- 
mitted to go there in future, or towards the Mississippi, oblige me ta 
entreat the honor of your directions respecting that matter." 

In locating this little fort in the wilderness which had such a stormy 
existence, one is greatly helped to a conclusion by consulting the early 
maps of the territory, some of which I name. In the congressional 
library at Washington there are: 

John Mitchell's map of North America, 17.^5, which locates the fort 
more tlinn lliirly miles fi-(»in llie mouth of the St. Joseph river. This 



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MAI' SIIOWINC I.orATK^N OF OLD FOHT ST. 




<;PH.— FUOM Till'. MICIIIC.AN STATK l.lUHAiJY 




SKCTIONS OF THK .JOHN MITCIIKI.I. MAP OK 175.-). OIUCINAI. IN THK CONCIU SSK » 



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V y ■ WITH THK ..^C~ • ' 

SET T L EM E Jf T S, 







I IBIiAHV. WASHINGTON. D. C. AND IN THK HYl.HSON I.IUKAItY, CHAND liAriDS. 



is an authoritative map. and is used in the settlement of boundary 
disputes. 

D'Anville's map, 1755, indicates about the same location. The 
Pouteatomies and Miamis are shown to have villages near by. This 
French map is also authoritative. 

In the Michigan State Library are five maps showing Fort St. Joseph 
up stream: 

"CaHe des Possessions Angloises <C- Francoises due Continent de 
VAmerique Septentrionale. Tho. Kitchin, sculpt. 1755." 

^'Partie Occidentale de la Nouvelle France ou du Canada, par Mr. 
Bellm ♦ * * cummiiniquee au Public par les Rentiers de Romany 
en Van 1755." 

"Carte Des Etats-Unis de VAmerique Septentrionole, dressee d'aprhs 
des cartes Anglaises; par M. Brion de la Tour * ♦ ♦ Paris, 17S0?-' 

"Mappa geographica Americw SeptentrionaUs * * * edita jussu 
Acad. rcg. scient. et eleg. litt, discripta. {n. d.)." 

"Theatruni Belli in America Septenti-ionali 11. foUis comprehensum 
jussu Acad. reg. scient. et eleg. litt. * * * Berger sculpsit." 

In the Ryerson library- at Grand Rapids, I find "Map of Sr. Robert 
de Vangondy Geographica Ordinaire de Roy, 1755," showing the fort, 
as above, with the Miami villages on the north side of the stream and 
the Pottowatomies on the south. 

Map of William Faden, Geographer to the King, London, 1796— 
same location. 

Map of John Gary, London, 1805, shows same location with a road 
from Detroit to Fort St. Joseph, thence south to Fort Wayne, Indiana. 
John Gary's maps of 180G and 1807 confirm above, and in no way, that 
I have examined has the location materially varied. 

In Vol. X, p. 248 of the publications of Michigan Pioneer and 
Historical Society, a reprint of the Haldimand papers from the Can- 
adian archives, shows the route taken and the distance in going from 
Detroit to the Mississippi in 1770 as follows: 

"The road from Detroit to Fort St. Josejths by land and from thence 
to the Junction of the Illinois river with tho Mississii)pi by water. 

Miles. Miles. 
From Detroit to the River Huron or Xandcwinc Sippy. . 40 
N. I>. There is a village of Puttawateamees of six 
kirge cabana. The river at this place is about Fifty 
feet wide and the water is generally from one and a 
half to two feet deoj), when there are Floods Travel- 
lers are obliged to make Rafts to cross it, the road 
in this place is bad. 



10 

Miles. Miles. 

To the Salt River or Wanadagon Sijypy 12 

N. B. There is another village of Pittawattamees 
of five Cabans. This river is never so high as to pre- 
vent people passing it. 
To one of the Branches of Ch-and River or Washtanon 

that falls into Lake Michigan '. . 60 

112 

There is another village of Pottawattamees of eight 

large Cabans. 
To Reccanama:^oo River or Pnsawpaco Sippy, otherwise 

the Iron Mine River 75 

N. B. There is another village of Pottawattamees 
of eight large Cabans, this river cannot be passed 
in Freshes on Rafts; at other time 1 or 2 feet deep. 

To the Prairieroude 30 

N. B. There is a small lake of about % of a mile 
wide and 11 miles long, abounding with several sorts 
of Fish, such as Maskenougi, Whitefish, &ca. 

To the Fort St. Joseph 75 

292 

N. B. There is a few Puttawattamees near the fort. 

The road after you pass the River Huron is verj-^ good 
being mostly on a small height of land & little wood 
till you come to St. Joseph's where you pass through 
about a mile long and another about six miles long. 
From Fort St. Joseph's you ascend that River to a carry- 
ing place (LaSalles portage) 12 

^ From carrying place to Recankeekce 4 

To the Juncture of this river with the Iroquis River 150 

N. B. In this fork is a village of 14 large Cabans 
of Mascontains. 
To the Junction of this river icith the Chicangoni River 

which forms the Illinois River 45 

N. B. At this fork there is a vi llage of Putta- 
watamees of 12 large Cabans. 

To the Rocks or old French Fort called Pumetewee 90 

To the Mississippi 240 

541 

From Detroit to the Mississippi by way of the Illinois 

River 833" 

In view of the facts here narrated there can be no reasonable doubt 
of the location of old Fort St. Joseph within the limits of the city of 
Niles; neither can it be doubted that the final destruction of the fort 
was by the Sy^aniards in 1781, and so have the flags of four nations 
waved over the State of Michigan ; the French, English, Spanish and 
our own stars and stripes. 



FXCEKPT FKOM THE WESTERN GAZETTEER OR EMIGRANT'S 

DIRECTORY. 

By Samukl R. Brown, Auburn, New York, 1817. Page 154. 

"The Rivers of :Micliisnn are numerous and mostly navigable for 
boats and canoes nearly to their heads. Those running into Lake 
^Michinan are: I. The St. Josephs, which heads in Indiana and in- 
terlocks by its several branches with Black River, St. Josephs of Miami, 
Eelriver and Tippecanoe. It enters the southeast end of the lake. 
It~is" rapid and full of islands, but navigable 150 miles, and is 200 
yards wide at its mouth. The Pottawattimie Indians, who reside on 
the shore, catch prodigious quantities of fish in its waters. It runs 
about fortv miles in the Michigan Territory. On the north bank of 
this river stands the old fort St. Josephs, from which there is a bridle 
road to Detroit." 




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